Sidemount Skill drill

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Grovspol

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Location
Sweden
# of dives
200 - 499
Divers

I've made a list of skill drills that I take with me to the pool sessions. I would be very glad to receive some inspiration for drills to add to the list.
At the moment the list goes like this:
S-drill
V-drill
Freeflowing regulator
Tank / tanks in front
Taking off a tank and put in on the bottom
Change to reserve bungee
Maskchange

If you want to up the difficulty, the drills can be conducted without finns and/or blindfolded or without the mask.

If you have any ideas of additional fun and useful skill drills, please let me know.

I have done a fair share of scouting on Youtube and hoping to get more ideas from the community
 
Last edited:
Yeah the Pattaya sidemount video is pretty good, but also no-mount procedures and gunning should be practiced for restrictions and penetrations.
 
Learn to feather properly: start inhaling before you open the tank and close the tank before you stop inhaling. No bubbles escape, ok? Learn to do this for half an hour in a relaxed manner while swimming and keeping depth. You can do this without a mask and fins, right? Or head down?

What's the difference between "V-drill" and "Freeflowing regulator"?
 
The feather part is a good addition, I will write it up on my list.
Hmm.. I would say the difference is just how the skill is trained, in the end the purpose is the same.
V-drill - Shut down left or right cylinder, when it's now giving any more air, change to the other mouthpiece. Turn on the cylinder and then shut down the one you are currently breathin on. When it's empty, change back again.

Freeflowing regulator - simulate a freeflow by pressing the purge. Identify the correct cylinder and shut it down as fast as possible, then change to the other mouthpiece
 
About the gunning part.
This is not an easy move with the steel cylinders, as I tend to be very front heavy ( of course) when unclipping and having the upfront. I find it that good preparations needs to made, for example empty the drysuit feet from air in order to counterbalance the new center of gravity. If anyone got any other suggestions regarding this I would gladly try them out.
 
I worked up to big steels. I started with double winging aluminum, the gunning an aluminum, then gunning and trailing my aluminum. Then I did steel 63s, then lp85s, then 95s. I can gun a 112 now and im working on gunning and trailing a 112 as well as double winging, 120s.
 
disconnect bcd hose use mouth to inflate
 

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